


one of these things first

by jellyfishes



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, M/M, christmas shit idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 06:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellyfishes/pseuds/jellyfishes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>niall goes away at christmas and zayn misses him</p>
            </blockquote>





	one of these things first

**Author's Note:**

> ok so they're not a band just letting you know

“We need to have an intervention,” Louis says seriously, pulling Zayn up off the sofa and into the kitchen. He guides him into one of the chairs at the table and slides a plate of pasta towards him.

“Over pasta?” Zayn asks and Louis rolls his eyes.

“Well Harry is going out with Liam to the movies and I can’t very well do this on my own can I?”

“Really?” Harry asks and Louis sighs dramatically.

“It’s hardly an intervention if it’s just me talking to Zayn. Then it’s just a chat, a polite conversation, a meaningless, unremarkable – ”

“We get it,” Zayn says, twirling his fork in the pasta and bringing it up to his mouth. “What are we intervening?”

Louis takes a deep breath and looks at Harry, his eyes full of pain before looking back to Zayn. Zayn is just about sick of his stupid dramatics and is ready to get up out of his chair and leave Louis sitting at the table. “It’s about the Christmas tree,” he says finally.

“Are you kidding?” Zayn says and Louis shakes his head sadly.

“I wish we were.” Harry scoffs from where he is leaning against the fridge, his eyes never having left his phone. “We,” Louis says, very pointedly, gesturing between himself and Harry. “Have noticed that the tree is looking…well, it looks pretty shit to be honest.”

Zayn laughs and shovels more pasta into his mouth. “You want me to redo it or something?” he asks. 

Niall has been gone for a week and Harry spends all of his time at Liam and Louis’ place these days, so Zayn had been responsible for picking up the real life fur tree and hauling it up the stairs to their flat. Though he was never really very good at hauling so it ended up being a group effort between him and the burly Italian man downstairs and the five year old twins across the hall who mostly just yelled encouragement and cheered when the tree finally made it onto the second floor.

Harry had come home about an hour later to find Zayn trying to get the tree to stand upright. He’d been too embarrassed to call on Mr Giacometti again and really he just needed Harry’s man-power to hold the tree up while he filled the bucket it was sitting in with the sand that he’d bought at the gas station. They only sold it seasonally and Christmas was just one of those times.   
“We probably should have done this earlier than five days before Christmas,” Harry had said and Zayn had shrugged. “Oh well mate, I’m just passing through. Liam and I are off to dinner. You’ll be right to decorate this, won’t you?”

But according to Louis, no, Zayn was _not_ alright to decorate the tree. At least not up to his standards. And Christmas is a big deal for Louis. Zayn’s family has never cared that much for Christmas, but before Louis moved to London for university, he used to get really into it, decorating his whole family house with lights and carolling along the street and getting up at five in the morning to open presents with his little sisters. Zayn went back to Doncaster with Louis a year ago and it was bloody overwhelming if he was honest. Still, he doesn’t know why Louis is so upset about the tree not being up to scratch when it’s not even his apartment. Harry hasn’t complained about the tree and Niall isn’t around to complain and the tree at Louis and Liam’s place is spectacular. Maybe it’s something to do with the fact that they’re spending Christmas at Harry, Zayn and Niall’s place because Harry is the only one who knows how to cook a turkey and Louis has insisted that they have to have a _traditional_ Christmas lunch.

“It’s not that you’ve decorated it badly mate,” Louis says and Zayn giggles again. “It’s just…it looks so _sad_.”

“I can’t believe you just said our Christmas tree looks sad,” Zayn says.

“Hazza back me up here!” Louis crows and Harry looks up.

“Huh?”

“The tree looks sad, right?”

Harry shrugs. “I dunno, I thought the excessive use of blue and white decorations was just Zayn being arty and picking a _theme_.”

“Or maybe they were the only decorations I could find,” Zayn says and Louis scoffs.

“Bullshit, last year the tree had gold and red decorations. I remember.”

“Pretty sure Niall broke ninety percent of those when he was drunk and stumbled into the tree on Christmas day,” Harry pipes up and Louis frowns at him, like it’s _his_ fault he’s losing the argument.

“This is ridiculous,” he says and Zayn stands up.

“Yeah, it is.”

“We’re worried about you Zayn!”

“No need to be.”

Harry finally pushes himself off the fridge and makes his way towards the door. “Might be a whole lot simpler if you stopped moping about Niall being gone and just manned up and told him how you’d like his ten incher between your lips,” he says and Zayn’s face floods with heat as he sputters.

“I – ”

“Don’t bother denying it,” Louis says triumphantly and Zayn glares at him.

“Leave me alone Louis.”

He can hear Louis cluttering around in cupboards for at least half an hour after he’s moved to his bedroom to get away from him and when he finally hears him leave, he pokes his head out to see the tree completely redecorated, and lit up, gold tinsel draped brightly over the branches. He groans and flicks the lights off at the switch and the room feels suddenly a lot colder and empty, but that has _nothing_ to do with the fact that Niall’s laughter isn’t around to fill it up.

\--

It’s two days before Christmas when Louis shows up at their apartment again, Liam in tow this time. Harry is eating muesli, leaning against the kitchen counter and he almost drops it in his haste to get to Liam’s side. Zayn rolls his eyes when Harry passes his bowl to Louis so that he can wrap both his arms and legs around Liam’s middle and forces Liam to walk the two of them towards the couch. “Liam you’d make a terrible pack mule,” he says when Liam finally deposits him on the lumpy furniture.

Liam rolls his eyes and flops down next to him. “Too bad I don’t have a back up plan,” he says and Harry grins.

“I guess you’ll just have to devote your life to spending time with your perfect boyfriend,” Harry says and Louis chooses that moment to sprawl across both of their laps, knocking the wind out of Harry’s lungs.

“So he told you about the new guy then?” he asks, smiling widely at Harry who socks him in the gut and pushes him onto the floor. “Take a joke you curly haired wench,” he wheezes from where he’s curled up clutching his stomach.

Zayn joins the three of them in the lounge, sitting cross legged onto the floor and letting Louis rest his head on his knee. He runs his hair through Louis’ hair softly and surveys them all. “What are you two even doing here?” he asks, addressing Liam who is the only one sure to give him a proper answer.

“Early presents,” Liam says, shrugging and Louis sits up, almost knocking his head against Zayn’s chin, but Zayn manages to dodge him just in time.

“We noticed your pining,” Louis says and Zayn tries to object, but Louis keeps talking. “So we thought giving you your Christmas present early might cheer you up.”

Harry nods. “Also we kind of only got it yesterday and you need to know what it is before tomorrow so there’s that as well.”

“Tomorrow?” Zayn asks. “That’s Christmas Eve.”

Louis rolls his eyes and shoves Zayn in the side. “Really Zayn? I never would have guessed.”

Harry, to his credit, at least tries to be elusive and mysterious building up to it when he says, “Do you know how cheap it is to fly on Christmas Eve?” but Louis kind of ruins it by jumping in again and cutting him off.

“We’re flying you to Ireland!” he exclaims, clapping his hands together and grinning like it’s the best thing that they’ve ever done, but all Zayn can think is that there’s no way Niall is going to be happy about that if he’s just flown back there himself to spend some time with his family. “Well, technically, the three of us are coming with you, but that’s not the point.”

Zayn looks at Liam as though he’s mad and it’s a little bit like Liam has betrayed his role as the sensible one because he’s the guy who’s meant to keep this kind of thing under control, not let Louis run rampant all the time and buy expensive last minute plane tickets to another country just so that Zayn can see his best friend (because that’s all he is) over Christmas. “Are you mental?” he says and Louis frowns.

“Oi, you’re not allowed to be angry. It’s my birthday tomorrow so you have to be nice to me.” Zayn groans and falls back onto the floor in frustration.

“I don’t know why you all think I can’t spend a few weeks without seeing Niall,” he says and he knows that the three of them are sharing a look when even Liam doesn’t say anything.

“Anyway,” Louis says after a moment of silence. “I’m going to pack for you. So just sit back and relax and be ready to leave tomorrow at midday.”

It’s fine, Zayn thinks. Louis can’t actually be serious about this whole thing. It’s most likely an elaborate plan to get Zayn to realise how much he misses Niall, but really, that’s not necessary. He’ll wake up tomorrow to a pile of Harry’s limbs and a confession that it was all just a big joke and they’ll be spending Christmas in their flat as planned.

\--

Zayn almost dies when they pull up in the taxi in front of Niall’s family home and he sees how small it is. It looks like it barely fits four people, let alone the boys as well. He always knew that it had been a struggle for Niall to pack everything up and move over to England to go to university, but Niall is so happy all the time that he’d never even considered that his family was less than comfortable in their living space.

“Are you daft Louis? This place looks like we couldn’t all fit in it if we were stacked on top of each other.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Harry says, grinning and Zayn scowls at him as Louis hauls the last of the suitcases out of the boot.

“Liam, get the fare will you?” he says and then turns to Zayn. “I’ll have you know I’m not a complete idiot. I called Bobby ahead and made sure there was enough room. Greg’s not here for the holidays anyway, he’s gone off to France with his girlfriend.”

Zayn sighs and looks back at the house. He can hear music playing through the walls and he’s suddenly desperate to get inside, if not for the fact that it’s freezing, for the fact that Niall is in there and sure, he might not have admitted it to anyone else, but he’s missed Niall like crazy for the past week.

Louis hands each of them a bag, including the bag that he and the boys packed for Zayn and he’s a bit worried because knowing Louis, it will be full of all socks and jocks and no actual clothes, or maybe just t shirts and nothing appropriate for the wintry weather. “Let’s get going then lads,” Louis says, starting to lug his suitcase up the path towards the house.

“Onwards!” Harry yells and breaks out into a run towards the door. Liam meets Zayn’s gaze and rolls his eyes, grinning at him as Zayn bites his lip, freaking out a bit about the whole thing.

“Come on mate,” Liam says, spinning Zayn around and guiding him up the path to where Louis is impatiently bouncing on the balls of his feet and trying to stop Harry from reaching around him to ring the doorbell.

“Zayn first!” Louis says, hauling him forwards as soon as he reaches them and positioning him right in front of the door.

“Why me first?” Zayn asks, batting at Louis’ hands where he’s trying to crane around him to knock on the door and his heart is beating a lot faster than it usually does.

“You’re our peace offering,” Harry says, baring his teeth in a shit eating grin and ringing the doorbell while Zayn is distracted with Louis. Zayn groans and turns around to face the door. He can see a figure approaching through the stained glass on either side of the door and he sucks in a deep breath.

“ _Coming_!” the figure yells and he can hear it’s Niall and he’s just about ready to jump off the garden path and hope that the snow either side of it is deep enough to swallow him up when Louis reaches around him again and smacks a fucking Christmas bow onto his forehead just as Niall opens the door.

His mouth drops open and it’s probably the only time Zayn has seen Niall speechless and he can practically feel Louis’ wide smile from behind him as Niall takes the four of them in, standing sheepishly on his doorstep. And then he grins. “For me?” he asks, opening his arms and laughing as Zayn steps willingly into him, letting himself be enveloped in a warm hug.

It takes Zayn a moment to bring his arms up to return the hug and by the time he does, Louis is ripping him away from Niall with a cry of “Share the love boys,” and Zayn doesn’t have time to try and conceal his blush as Louis leaps into Niall’s arms and has him cackling within seconds. When Zayn turns around, Harry is cuddled up to Liam and muttering something in his ear. He honestly doesn’t even want to know what that might be if the blush on Liam’s face is anything to go by and Harry pulls away, licking Liam’s cheek before pulling Niall into a one armed hug without dropping his luggage on the floor.

“Come meet me dad,” Niall says with a smile, picking up a bag off the floor that happens to be Louis’ and hauling it into the lounge where he dad is sitting on one of the armchairs in front of the TV. He stands up when the five of them trail in and squish in around the back of the couch.

Louis grins and steps forward, his hand outstretched to shake Bobby Horan’s hand. “How’s it going?” he asks and Bobby ignores the hand, pulling Louis into a hug instead.

“You must be Louis,” he says before pulling each of the boys in turn into a hug as Niall prattles off all of their names. “It’s a pleasure to have you all. I’ve heard a shitload about the lot of yer and I’ve got t’ say, our Nialler’s fuckin’ lucky to have met such wonderful lads as yourselves.” Zayn can’t help but giggle as it becomes apparent where Niall got his habit for swearing like a sailor from.

Liam and Harry get the spare room and Niall offers up his and Greg’s room to Louis and Zayn, but Louis, of course, insists on sleeping on the couch and so Niall concedes, taking Greg’s bed and offering his own single to Zayn. He bounces on the bed while Zayn unpacks, yabbering on about how excited he is for Christmas tomorrow and what he’s been up to for the past week and how glad he is that they boys are all here because he loves coming back to Ireland, but Christmas with just Bobby was bound to be a little boring and when Zayn is _finally_ done getting set up, he sits down on the bed opposite Niall and smiles at him. Niall grins back and stands up.

“Let’s go to the pub.”

\--

There are about twenty pubs on the main street of Mullingar, which only goes for a mile, but Niall walks purposefully towards one on a corner between an adult store and a sandwich bar with a flashing _OPEN_ sign in the window. Liam looks at Zayn dubiously and holds desperately onto Harry’s hand as he tries to skip ahead. “Let me _go_ Liam,” he grumbles. “I want pints!” Niall laughs at him in glee and holds the door open for the rest of them while they all bustle in out of the cold.

It’s full and warm inside and people are yelling and laughing and trying to shove each other under the mistletoe dotted around the room. Louis looks around with a glint in his eye and positions himself under the closest mistletoe, puckering his lips at the four of them as they pass by. Harry presses a sloppy kiss on his cheek and tugs him towards the bar where Niall orders four pints and a big glass of lemonade for Liam. “Alright Leemo?” he asks and Liam nods gratefully, pointing out an empty table by the back of the pub that Niall leads the rest of them towards.

“Sorry about the noise lads,” he says. “It’s not normally so busy, but y’know, it being Christmas Eve and all, everyone wants to come out to celebrate.” He grins. “You don’t want to know what it’s like in ‘ere on New Years.”

Zayn must look particularly worried because Niall bursts out laughing and throws an arm around his shoulders. “Just for those wide eyes Zayn, I’m bringing you here New Years Eve.” Zayn nods, sipping at his pint and trying not to cuddle into Niall so much that it’s obvious. “Might even let you kiss me at midnight,” he adds with a wink and Zayn’s mouth drops open as Louis chokes on his drink in laughter.

Niall is the life of the room and everyone seems to know who he is. After about four pints, he’s buzzed enough to leave the rest of the boys and join a game of pool with a pretty girl with dark hair and Zayn looks on in jealousy at the way Niall’s eyes catch the light when he laughs at something she says.

“Try not to be too obvious,” Liam says gently, leaning across the table and ignoring the way Harry is sprawled all over him, already completely wasted. Louis is up at the bar, talking animatedly to a bunch of fifty year old men who Zayn is pretty sure he is trying to convince to let him join a game of darts.

When a fight breaks out on the other side of the bar, Niall rejoins them at the table as Louis weaves through the crowd to find them a second later. “Might be time to go boys,” Niall says, grinning at Harry whose hand is working it’s way up the inside of Liam’s leg despite the older man’s protests. He guides them out of the bar, a hand on the small of Zayn’s back as he hops down the step onto the street. It’s freezing outside and Niall pulls a beanie out of his pocket and brandishes it in front of Zayn’s face. “You want?” he says, pulling it onto Zayn’s head before he can even react, tucking his ears under the wool and grinning at him.

Louis turns around and laughs at the two of them. “Looking god Zayner,” he crows and Zayn blushes and looks away while Louis refocusses his attention on Harry who is trying to dance against Liam’s side. Liam is actually doing a pretty good job of ignoring Harry by looking straight ahead as they make their way down the street.

“I reckon we’re going to have a hard time getting Harry into bed,” Niall says with a laugh and Zayn shakes his head.

“Don’t think so,” he says and Louis pipes up from the front of the group.

“Yeah just stick Liam in the bed naked and he’ll be in there quicker than you can blink.”

\--

Zayn is almost asleep when Niall whispers his name into the darkness. “What?” he responds and it sounds a bit snappy and he almost thinks that he’s scared Niall into not responding, but a few seconds later he hears rustling and then the dark shape of Niall moving through the room towards his bed.

“Can you shove over?” he asks and Zayn groans, sitting up on his elbows to shuffle over on the bed a bit. He’s pretty sure he’s left enough space for Niall and his back is pressed against the wall anyway, so it’s not like he can squish over anymore. But seriously, it’s a single bed and tomorrow is bound to be a big day, so Zayn doesn’t know how the two of them are going to get a decent sleep if their limbs keep poking into each other. 

“Sorry,” Niall mutters when he accidentally kicks Zayn in the shin and that sets Zayn off in a fit of giggles, which he tries to muffle against the pillow. It feels so ridiculous, pressed up against another grown man in a tiny bed the night before Christmas, but it feels right, like tomorrow is so exciting that Zayn’s buzzing and he wants to be close to another person to feel their same energy thrumming against his skin – it’s like being kids again. Zayn thinks for a fleeting moment that this is what Christmas is all about, being around the people you love and _oh_ , that’s probably the first time he’s admitted that to himself.

Zayn can vaguely make out Niall playing with the collar of his t shirt where it’s rucked up by his neck on one side and he doesn’t really want to go to sleep yet. “I haven’t got you a present yet,” he says softly and Niall blinks at him. “Didn’t have time to get anything before Louis shoved me into the back of his van and kidnapped me.”

Niall chuckles. “Didn’t at least give you candy first?”

“He didn’t even buy me gum at the airport,” Zayn grumbles, which makes Niall laugh again and Zayn’s heart beats a bit faster.

“It’s alright anyway,” Niall says softly. “Haven’t got you anything yet either. Wasn’t planning on seeing you for another two weeks.” He rolls onto his side to face Zayn and smiles. “What do you want for Christmas Zayn?”

Zayn’s quiet for a moment and he closes his eyes and knows he could stop himself from saying what he does, but he doesn’t think he really wants to. “You.”

He can feel his cheeks heat up as soon as he says it and he’s glad it’s almost pitch black in Niall’s room so he can’t really see what Niall’s facial expression looks like. He almost thinks he’d be better off never knowing, like maybe Niall will take pity on him and pretend that he fell asleep in the few seconds that it took Zayn to answer the question. But he can hear Niall shuffling around where he’s facing him and then he’s moving up the bed a bit until he’s right there next to Zayn’s face. “Does this mean I don’t have to buy you an actual present then?” he asks and then he kisses him.

The room is dark around them and it feels like the air is crackling as Zayn’s lips slant against Niall’s. He doesn’t remember moving, but he can feel Niall’s course tufts of hair between his fingers and he’s vaguely aware that Niall is half leaning over him, hovering above him a little bit as though he’s nervous to close that last distance between them. He pulls back for a second and grins at Zayn.

“Lou told me you’ve been down ever since I was gone.”

Zayn blushes and makes a mental note to strangle Louis with tinsel in the morning. “Don’t get too smug about it,” he says, craning his neck to try and kiss Niall again and Niall laughs and leans back.

“We going to get naked or what?” he asks, grinning. Zayn lets out a startled laugh before biting his lip.

“Bit chilly for that don’t you think?” he says and Niall growls, leaning in to catch Zayn’s bottom lip between his teeth and letting it snap back with a wet sound.

“Reckon I can think of a few ways to keep us warm.”

Niall’s right. His hands are on Zayn’s sides, pushing up his loose t shirt and they make him feel all hot and desperate, like he needs Niall to never stop touching him or else he might stop breathing. He can feel Niall’s breath hot against his jaw and he wants more. He wants to feel himself completely lost in Niall, to not know where he ends and the other begins. Wants – “I want you to fuck me,” he gasps into the heavy air and Niall moans loudly into the skin of his neck.

“Yeah,” he pants out, hands already at Zayn’s hips, not wasting any time with formalities as he shoves his boxers down his skinny legs before wriggling out of his own. “Yeah, ‘m gonna.”

He works Zayn open with careful fingers, one hand splayed on the sheets next to Zayn’s face as he watches him carefully, learning how he can make Zayn gasp or whimper depending on which way he crooks his fingers. He grins when Zayn lets out a low moan and presses back against him, his hips thrusting down towards Niall’s hand. “You want to be on top?” Niall asks and Zayn lets out a desperate whine because really, he just wants Niall and he doesn’t care how he has him.

“Maybe next time,” he manages to croak and his voice is strangled and sounds ridiculous to his own ears, but it makes Niall’s eyes that little bit darker as he pulls out his fingers and replaces them with his cock in one long, slow push.

“You okay?” he asks when he bottoms out and Zayn scrunches up his eyes and tries to ignore the dull ache that he thought he was used to, but it’s been a while and he’d be lying if he said it didn’t hurt. Niall is slow at first, working Zayn up to it with shallow thrusts until Zayn is rocking back against him, one hand tight in the sheets and the other guiding Niall back towards him so that their mouths can meet in a messy tangle of tongues. It’s not practised or smooth but it makes Zayn feel like he’s been set alight and he groans into Niall’s mouth.

“Faster,” he whispers and Niall grunts as he snaps his hips forward, readjusting his weight to reach a hand between their bodies to wrap around Zayn’s length. The angle is awkward and he lets out a frustrated growl before letting go and kissing up Zayn’s neck.

“Get yourself off,” he mutters in Zayn’s ear and it’s almost enough to make him absolutely lose it, but he wraps long fingers around his own dick and jerks himself off loosely until he comes in a hot mess over his own stomach and fingers, his come matting in the line of hair under his belly button. He’s almost two blissed out to notice Niall’s hips stuttering and the muscles in his neck straining as he comes inside Zayn before burying his face in the crook of Zayn’s neck and collapsing onto him in a sated sprawl. “Yer fuckin’ perfect,” Niall says and Zayn laughs.

“Post-orgasm compliments,” he says. “Thanks Ni.”

The blonde chuckles and rolls off Zayn to flop next to him on the small bed. “Can’t believe I just fucked me best mate in a room with a topless Megan Fox poster on the wall.”

“She’s hot though,” Zayn says. “I’d do her if I wasn’t a total goner for someone else.”

“Lucky guy,” Niall says with a grin, turning his head to face Zayn and he can see a twinkle in his eye.

Zayn hums, shifting his hand where it’s lying on the sheets to link his fingers with Niall’s. “Yeah?” Zayn says, smiling at Niall and he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to stop really. “I’ve heard the Irish have a thing for good luck.”


End file.
